Mayo
by OneWhoTurns
Summary: Alex keeps Jonas company for a smoke break. (Post-island genfic, Jonas/Alex one-sided silent pining because I love these dorks)


"I look like a complete tool."

"Good." Alex's lips hook into a small (vaguely pert, a little too self-satisfied) smile as she watches her feet, balancing on the curb like a beam as she paces one way, then another, quick steps in time to the ghost of a rhythm heard through the closed door. "Maybe it'll help you quit."

He wants to glare at her, he does, but he settles on a side-eyed glance as he takes another drag off the stupid thing. Exhaling with a sigh, he rolls his eyes. "I can't believe I let you pick this."

She catches his eye for a second before her foot slips on the wet curb and she overcorrects, stumbling onto the sidewalk to avoid splashing into the puddled street. In an instant their expressions have swapped, Jonas holding back a snicker as Alex rolls her eyes. She's blushing, though he's not sure how he can tell in the yellow light of the streetlamp. Maybe he can just feel the heat off her face as she half-falls against the wall to his right, hands jammed back in the pockets of that well-worn red jacket.

"Don't complain, you know you love it."

She's very clearly ignoring her fall, trying to change the subject. She hasn't been drinking - not yet, though that should change once they all head back to Jamie's place post-gig - but she has that glow about her, bright-eyed with a frenzy just under her skin. He sees a lot of Ren in her, to be honest. Especially when she's grinning at him like that. As insufferable as Ren can be sometimes, Jonas can't deny his positivity is good for Alex.

He scoffs, but the smirk hasn't left his lips as he examines the neon sign in the window of the dry cleaning place across the street. "Right. Who wouldn't love ripping sick hits of something called _Unicorn Farts_."

Alex lets out a bark of laughter, and just for that he blows the next stream of vapor right into her face.

She closes her eyes, exaggeratedly breathing in the secondhand vape, nose raised right into his personal space as she lets out a mocking, "Mmmm."

There's a half second that his throat tightens, memorizing her face, that hummed smile, the attempt at eyeliner smudged over her closed lids- how close she is. She confuses the hell out of him, sometimes. Like how he doesn't know if he wants to elbow her in the ribs or kiss her. He opts for neither, bopping her on the forehead with the mouthpiece of his e-cig.

Her brow furrows and lips hook mischievously again as she rolls her eyes and turns back to the empty street, scuffing a foot against the brick wall of the venue. "How much longer, fart-sucker?"

He pulls a face at the jab, but at least any un-brotherly thoughts are purged from his mind. "You know, I never asked you to come with."

Her eyes watch her feet as she fidgets, foot tapping between wall and ground in an inconsistent pattering. "Yeah, but if I didn't you'd probably ditch us."

She says it jokingly, but he feels that twinge of guilt anyway.

It's not that she's clingy, she really isn't. But ever since the island - or maybe ever since _ever_, he's only known her a couple months, even if it feels like ages - Alex is the one that keeps them all together. She was the one dragging his sorry ass out to Aural Fixation to "support" Ren and his stupid Vampire-Weekend-knockoff band tonight.

Jonas snorts. "No I wouldn't," he lies. Or maybe it's not a lie. "You know, I don't hate him."

"I know."

"He's actually not that bad." Okay, maybe he's just trying to convince himself at this point.

Truth be told, Ren can be incredibly annoying. And maybe part of it is his propensity for messing with his brain chemicals, and maybe part of it is Jonas's annoyance that Ren does that shit and still manages to be a A/B student, and get scholarships, and somehow be friends with everyone. Be friends with Alex, when she ends up babysitting him when things inevitably get weird. Alex tried to explain it to him once, the things Ren brought to their friendship, but he didn't get it. He's grown to understand it a bit more now, the way Ren can drag her out of it when she gets that detached look, when her eyes glaze over, how he makes her laugh and distracts her from whatever it is going through her head.

Her lopsided smile isn't as mischievous as before. It just looks a little sad. Again, Jonas's throat tightens. "Seriously, Jonas, it's fine. I know you two are like oil and water."

_Guilt_. "No…" His protest is unconvincing even to his own ears, and Alex quirks a skeptical eyebrow. "...Okay, maybe sometimes. But you're like- that thing. The thing that lets them mix. Emosolutions or whatever."

"An emulsifier?"

"Emulsifier. Yeah. You make us mayo."

She's obviously trying not to laugh. "Right. Mayo, okay."

"Hey, chemistry isn't my forte, alright?"

"Alright, Alton Brown."

He shoots her a sidelong glance, hiding his relief that the sadness seems to have dissipated under a facade of minor irritation. He takes one last drag and lets out a beleaguered sigh. "Fine. Let's just go back inside."

She nearly bounces away from the wall, shucking off her jacket again and tying it around her waist in anticipation of the heat in the venue. And then the door is open again, and she's giving him that look, and he rolls his eyes and follows her back inside to the heat and the music, and she puts out her hand to guide him through the crowd, and he takes it.

Because of course he does. Of course he would. He would follow her anywhere.


End file.
